[Emma176]

hello.
Im january i am going to be applying to university and i am unsure wheather i want to specialise in womens wear or knit wear
the problem is i dont really know what other jobs are involved in knitwear other than the obvious of designing, this may sound like a stupid question but i was wondering if anyone knew anything about it or do knitwear themselves?
My heart is in knitwear but i want to be sure its for me before i chose a course on knitwear
soo.. PLEASE help!

Emma x x

[Pauline]

Emma My first thought is have you experience already of using a domestic knitting machine? If not it might be worthwhile getting access to one to see if you can understand the technicalities involved. I used to be a keen machine knitter years ago and feel that if knitwear is your thing it may well be best to develop the basics of this skill in this next year. That way you would get a lot of 'learning aggro' out of the way and have time to truly develop more creative ideas without wasting time on how to knit problems. Obviously you would still be learning but you could cut out weeks of aggro by knowing some basics.

A general course may include some knitwear and may also give you the opportunity to specialise at some point within the course. I suspect you need to do much more research as courses and content change every year. You could also contact a few knitwear names within your locale(I won't list them as everyone reading will bombard the same companies)and ask for some unpaid work experience or even a factory visit. Ask at factory level what qualities/skills they seek in knitwear designers. Try a Kelly search in google for UK knitwear factories